Juneau-Douglas High School senior wrestlers Taylor Sutak and Adam Murphy were honored on their home turf Friday during senior night against rival Thunder Mountain, which marked the first time JDHS has competed in its home gym since 2012.
The fan base was low on Friday for the senior appreciation dual match between the Crimson Bears and Falcons, but the action was intense. Falcons seniors Tyler Cole and Hunter Boyer also received special acknowledgements during the night.
Results for Friday are:
• At 106 pounds, TMHS freshman Connor Norman pinned JDHS senior Adam Murphy in the first round.
• At 120 pounds, JDHS’s Christian Batac pinned TMHS sophomore MJ Johnson in the third round. TMHS freshman Austin Jackson pinned JDHS freshman Daniel Peters in the first round. TMHS sophomore Jacob Tapia pinned JDHS’s Christian Batac in the second round, and TMHS freshman Caleb Deer pinned JDHS freshman Daniel Peters in the first round
• At 132 pounds, JDHS freshman Festus LaChester pinned TMHS freshman Donald Scott in the first round.
• At 152 pounds, TMHS junior Alex Ocana pinned JDHS freshman Reilly Sutak in the third round at 152-pounds
• At 160 pounds, TMHS junior Alex Ocana pinned JDHS junior John Schmitz in the second round. TMHS junior Sam Nolan pinned JDHS junior John Williams in the first round.
• At 170 pounds, TMHS senior Tyler Cole pinned JDHS sophomore Seth Machakos in the second round.
• At 182 pounds, JDHS sophomore Lance Fenumiai pinned TMHS freshman Josh Quinto in the first round. JDHS sophomore Seth Machakos pinned TMHS freshman Josh Quinto in the second round.
The Crimson Bears were wrestling in the Marie Drake gym for practices until midway through this season, when new athletic director Chad Benz put the team back in the JDHS auxiliary gym.
“Now there is some visibility,” JDHS head coach John Joeright said. “Guys can get seen, people know we exist and hopefully it will generate some interest in the program among the other students. That is really important that people see these wrestlers and know they are around.”
TMHS’s Boyer also liked the venue change.
“It was good to wrestle back at JD,” he said. “Any exposure for the kids is great and it lets them wrestle someone different. If we could get our programs going it would nice to get more of these meets.”
The Crimson Bears and Falcons travel to Palmer next weekend for the Lancer Smith Memorial. The tourney is dubbed the toughest in Alaska, as nearly all small and large school grapplers compete in brackets that can feature 32 wrestlers.
“It will be pretty cool to see our guys get into the action there,” Boyer said. “This will show us where we are in terms of ability across the state and will open our wrestler’s eyes. We will have a chance to bring something back to Juneau and our school that hasn’t been done in a while.”
